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I guess I can't do these 'Greatest albums of this year!' lists anymore, maybe I'm too old or slightly out of touch now, so I'll try something easier for a change - the best gigs I've seen in last two years! I saw plenty, but missed even more. I'm doing this journal mainly for myself, so please, don't be offended by the lack of real informative value.

If you're one of the many who have found legitimate reasons to despise Feb. 14th, the noise miscreants in Desert Island Dicks have released a Valentine's Day single that might pique your interest. Nothing the Dicks do ever seems to be straightforward, so it was a fairly safe bet they weren't going to buy into the standard hearts-and-flowers template, and here they don't disappoint.

The single in question is a two-track cover of Joy Division's now-iconic "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Each Valentine's Day, many thousands of people may feel compelled to buy V-Day paraphernalia as a de rigueur activity rather than as a sincere expression of romantic feeling…

I've heard a few great covers lately so I thought I'd make a list... yes I'm that bored right now. The order's pretty vague. Tried to pick mostly ones people might not have heard. Major points for radical re-interpretations - there's no point recording covers otherwise.

1) Johnny Cash - Hurt (originally Nine Inch Nails). - I love the NIN original, but the frailty of Cash's voice shortly before his death adds a whole new layer of poignancy. Beautiful.

2) Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (originally Leonard Cohen). - I was a bit reluctant to put this in, seeing as it's probably one of the first songs that springs to mind when people think of great covers, and also because it's pretty much become the seminal version of the song anyway. Nevertheless, there it is.